Various techniques have been proposed for protection of metal oxides in electronic devices. For example, Hong, D. and Wager, J., “Passivation of zinc-tin-oxide thin-film transistors,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, Vol. 23, No. 6, November/December 2005, pp. L25-L27 describe zinc-tin-oxide channel thin-film transistors (TFTs) that are passivated using thermally evaporated silicon dioxide. TFT performance is dramatically degraded if a zinc-tin-oxide TFT is covered with a dielectric layer and does not undergo annealing of the TFT after channel layer deposition and additional annealing after thermal evaporation of an SiO2 passivation layer.
It would be advantageous to have improved techniques for protection of semiconducting oxides in electronic devices.